Monday, September 2, 2024 -The British National, Drew Povey, accused of inciting insurrection against the Tinubu-led government has has asked the Nigerian government not to treat protests as treason.
Povey, whom the Nigerian government
said also bears the name Andrew Wynne, was reacting to the government’s
allegation of building “a network of sleeper cells to topple the Bola Tinubu
administration and plunge the nation into chaos.”
The government raided and sealed his
bookshop located at the Abuja headquarters of the Nigeria Labour Congress
(NLC).
Earlier today September 2, the FG
arraigned ten Nigerians who participated in last month’s #EndBadGovernance
protest in Abuja. Part of the charges against them was that they collaborated
with the 70-year-old Briton, “with intent to destabilize Nigeria, call on the
military to take over the government from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
n his statement written on the letterhead
of his bookshop, Mr Povey asked the government to release the detainees.
“The mass
protests over #EndBadGovernance and #EndHunger frightened the government. But
rather than addressing the people’s demands, the government turned to
repression'' he said
Read Mr Povey’s full statement below.
PROTEST IS NOT TREASON – release all the
detainees! The mass protests over #EndBadGovernance and #EndHunger frightened
the government. But rather than addressing the peoples’ demands, the government
turned to repression. Perhaps 40 people were murdered by the police and other
the security forces, thousands were arrested and many still remain in
captivity.
In Abuja,
the authorities have attacked the so called leaders and organisers of the
protests. Ten people face ridiculous charges including treason, mutiny and
levying war against the state.
The NLC
promised a general strike to protect its President, Joe Ajaero, from arrest and
detention in relation to similar charges. Despite the flimsy nature of the
evidence against the detainees, they face long years in prison unless the trade
union movement is prepared to protect them. On 7th August the NLC said it,
“condemns in the strongest terms the human rights violations perpetrated by
security forces against peaceful protesters.”
The first
person to be arrested in this case was Eleojo Opaluwa. He is a former colleague
of Joe Ajaero, working for NUEE, the electricians union, as an organiser in
Abuja. He is also the Vice Chair of the NLC in Kogi State. He has now been
detained for over 4 weeks with no tangible evidence. His family was told that
he had received a WhatsApp message from one of the other alleged leaders. This
was after Eleojo had actually been detained. The ten detainees have been
accused of conspiracy to commit a range of serious crimes.
However,
they barely know each other. Five of them may have been members of a WhatsApp
group set up to organise the protests in Abuja. But the other five are unknown
to these comrades. They may be a few of the flag waving protesters from Kano
who were added to extend the range of the organizers to cover the main protests
from Sokoto to Maiduguri There appears to be a conflict between the government
and the police investigating this case. The head of the Intelligence Response
Team (IRT) told the detainees’ lawyers that he would have released them, but
that he had orders from above not to set them free. So the police have
developed what appears to be a ridiculous case involving the owner of Iva
Valley Books.
They are
claiming that he goes under the name of Andrew Povich, a Russian sounding name,
and that he has now left Nigeria for Russia. Neither of these claims are true.
Yomi, who works for Iva Valley Books, has, like the other detainees, been
treated in a terribly inhumane manner. He was arrested in front of his wife and
three-year old daughter. All their phones were confiscated by the police. This
was despite appeals from his wife that they needed a phone to get money for
food. He was then imprisoned illegally and held in chains, beaten and tortured
for three days. His only involvement was to design flyers for the protests on
the instructions of his boss. The NLC has shown that it has the power to
protect its President. It now needs to extend this action to protect its other
officers, its members and the general public''
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